Sewing machine needles have heretofore been marked with a selected one of a group of different colors to indicate a single characteristic such as blade size or needle type. Recent needle developments have resulted in the existence of a variety of new needle types, such as ball point needles, particularly suited for use on synthetic fiber textiles or on knit fabrics. Since these new needle types as well as regular needles are supplied in a variety of blade sizes, use of a single color for coding becomes confusing because of the increasing difficulty of maintaining identity as between the increasingly similar colors.